The Amazing Race -- Phuket, Thailand

Land of the Lost

I don't think I've ever seen a leg where so many racers got lost. In one case it was entirely the racers own fault for trying to make something simple complicated and screwing it up royally.

Racers are told their first destination will be Phucket, Thailand. The Snowboarders and Larry and Zac find out at the airport there are no direct flights to Phucket, so they book on Jakarta, but don't book on a connecting flight, figuring their will be plenty of plans going to Phucket in Jakarta. They figure wrong and they end up arriving in Phucket an hour later than the other teams who booked in advance.

Lucky for them the clue box for the next leg is located on a dock that's locked until the morning, allowing all the times to be there at the same time, with a level playing field.

Detour -- Phil explains that the 2004 tsunami that hit Phucket destroyed the coral reef and teams will have a chance to help repair it.

The teams have a choice of Coral Reconstruction and Beach Preparation. In Coral Reconstruction teams put together this frame, transport it by kayak, place it under water and plant coral in it so the coral reef lost can grow and be replaced.

The Snowboarders don't really seem to have much trouble doing the task. They know just what to do and it helps them to get their snowboarding butts back into first place. The same can't be said for other teams as most just give up and head to do Beach Preparation, which holds its own problems for racers.

In Beach Preparation you have to set chairs and umbrellas on the beach to the cabana boys standards. Only problem is the wind is pretty strong and it keeps blowing the umbrellas over, which amuses the cabana boys to no end. The Twins are the last to finish this task.

The next clue directs teams to take a compass and go north 13 minutes on a boat until they find the scene displayed on their medallion. Ernie and Cindy go south instead of north and have a hard time realizing two cliffs standing high above the water close together is the scene from their medallion.

Once the racers reach the two cliffs, they find their next clue hanging there. It directs them to limestone cliffs they have to climb up to get their next clue. As this is a roadblock only one team member can do it. I was impressed how fast Bill of the Grandparents completed the task. He's was more agile than he looks.

The clue directs racers to their next pit stop with is a floating stadium. Larry and Zac are the next racers to get lost when they over think the task. Since their experienced in navigating instead of just pointing out a place on the map for the driver of their boat to take them, they plot their own course, which gets them lost. Luckily they spot another team and get themselves unlost. Unfortunately, it costs them from placing higher at the check-in at the next pit stop.

The Snowboarders are #1 again and are each given $5,000 as their prize.

2. The Double J's who are the only other team to successfully complete the coral task

3. Jeremy and Sandy

4. Larry and Zac

5. Ernie and Cindy

6. Amani and Marcus who got lost trying to figure out where the pit stop was.

7. The Grandparents

8 Is the Twins who are told by Phil this is a non-elimination leg. They'll have to do a Speed Bump during the next leg, but they're still in it.

So, I guess the lesson learned from this leg of the race is don't over-complicate a task. None of the other racers got lost like Larry and Zac did because all they did was point to the place on the map to their boat drivers and let the driver do his thing. Because Larry and Zac wanted to plot their own course they totally screwed up.

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